Does this mean less Sleb Biographies

Garpy · Jan 14, 2009

Encouraging data from Bookscan on the US market suggests a couple of encouraging trends:

1. Book sales are not contracting in these hard times...just pretty flat

2. Non-fiction books are selling less

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6628121.html?nid=3329

Hurrah! Less celeb biographies, misery memoirs, self-help books.

It sort of makes sense too. Hard times mean people are looking for a bit of escapism. So jolly well done you writers creating fantasy worlds/scifi universes/parallel histories. And commiserations to those writers of grim urban social commentary.

ChaosTitan · Jan 14, 2009

Garpy said:
So jolly well done you writers creating fantasy worlds/scifi universes/parallel histories.

I live for news like this.

In general, though, I think houses pay way too much for celeb memoirs. Wasn't there one recently that someone paid a ton 'o cash for, and it tanked?

willietheshakes · Jan 14, 2009

ChaosTitan said:
I think houses pay way too much for celeb memoirs. Wasn't there one recently that someone paid a ton 'o cash for, and it tanked?

You're gonna have to narrow it down...

scarletpeaches · Jan 14, 2009

Less slebiographies? Hope so.

Self help books? Not so down on them; there's a few good 'uns out there.

As for mis-mems, you can keep 'em.

ChaosTitan · Jan 14, 2009

willietheshakes said:
You're gonna have to narrow it down...

Garpy · Jan 14, 2009

Scarlet, is that a chimp in a corduroy jacket wearing an elvis wig...I see on your lap?

scarletpeaches · Jan 14, 2009

It was the height of primate chic...in the 70s.

And the jumper is woollen.

blacbird · Jan 14, 2009

ChaosTitan said:
I think houses pay way too much for celeb memoirs. Wasn't there one recently that someone paid a ton 'o cash for, and it tanked?

There've been more than one such, in recent years. Hasn't daunted the plague any, though.

caw

maestrowork · Jan 14, 2009

I want to write an autobiographical self-help fantasy involving a celeb, preferably with the first name Charlize.

bpmann · Jan 14, 2009

Celebrity bios are NON-fiction?

Who knew!

Brian

Diamond Lil · Jan 14, 2009

Garpy said:
Hard times mean people are looking for a bit of escapism. So jolly well done you writers creating fantasy worlds/scifi universes/parallel histories...

Yes, the 1930s and 40s were the heyday of escapist fiction across the genres. And Gone With the Wind was a successful novel long before it was a big film.

MarkEsq · Jan 15, 2009

May I be petty? Just for a moment?

It's "fewer" sleb biographies.

Sorry, a pet peeve.

Interestingly, and on topic now, my agent asked me to write a bio page for my non-fiction work, a blurb about my subject that very much reads like fiction and is consistent with the notion that people are looking for up-lifting stuff. It starts like this:

This book is about the American Hero. It’s about a man who lived the adventures we created for ourselves as children, a man who delights us still by leaping into our lives from the pages of a book, from the flicker of the big screen. But the cowboy in this book is real, a lawman from The West who catches bad guys with a gun in one hand, a badge in the other, and a knowing smile on his lips. Tall and handsome, this hero could charm the birds from the trees with his soft Texas burr. He’s the kind of man that every youngster wants to be, and every adult wants to know.

Does this mean less Sleb Biographies

Garpy

keyboard monkey

ChaosTitan

Around

willietheshakes

Gentleman. Scholar. Bastard.

scarletpeaches

ChaosTitan

Around

Garpy

keyboard monkey

scarletpeaches

blacbird

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

bpmann

Diamond Lil

MarkEsq

Clever title pending.